Word.ws English Dictionary

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Syllables: ar·rowUK/ˈæ.ɹəʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British[ˈa.ɹəw]

arrow noun: a projectile consisting of a shaft, a point and a tail with stabilizing fins that is shot from a bow. Also the contraction of ever.

arrow: a projectile consisting of a shaft, a point and a tail with stabilizing fins that is shot from a bow
Image: Transportstyrelsen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

arrow (plural arrows)

  1. A projectile consisting of a shaft, a point and a tail with stabilizing fins that is shot from a bow.
    • The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of yᵉ Souldyers, ſhot habbe or nabbe at randon^([sic – meaning random]) uppe to the Roode lofte, and to the Chancell, leauing ſome of theyr arrowes ſticking in the Images.1577, Raphaell Holinshed; Richarde Stanyhurst [i.e., Richard Stanihurst], “[The Historie of Irelande […].] The Thirde Booke of the Historie of Ireland, Comprising the Raigne of Henry the Eyght: ….”...
    • Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    streal
  2. A sign or symbol used to indicate a direction (e.g.→).
    • Consider now the arrow with initial point A and terminal point B; this arrow we shall designate by #92;overrightarrow#123;AB#125;. If a#95;1,a#95;2,a#95;3, and b#95;1,b#95;2,b#95;3 are the coordinates of A and B, respectively, then #92;overrightarrow#123;AB#125; is equal to the arrow...1968, Robert R. Stoll, Edward T. Wong, Linear Algebra, London: Academic Press, →LCCN, pages 2–3
  3. A directed edge.
    Synonyms:
    arc, directed edge
  4. A morphism.
  5. (colloquial) A dart.
    • The second arrow flew through the air in a drunken parabolic curve and nestled just below the previous dart. Twenty!
      “Good arrows!” came from all around the room. Total silence came from the opposition corner.2014, John Eaton, It's Gonna Rain All Night, page 182
  6. The -> symbol, which has specific meanings in various programming languages.
  7. The inflorescence or tassel of a mature sugar cane plant.
    • When the bulb of the “blowing ball” is operated, a gentle spray, much like what happens in Nature when a sugar cane arrow is shaken by the wind or gently tapped, is given out at the free end of the capsule and can be directed to any portion of the arrow as desired.1921, The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, volume 67, page 187

Verb

arrow (third-person singular simple present arrows, present participle arrowing, simple past and past participle arrowed)

  1. (intransitive) To move swiftly and directly (like an arrow).
    • Above his head, a startled bird arrows up, into the sun.2019, Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King, Canongate Books (2020), page 279
  2. (transitive) To let fly swiftly and directly.
    • Jermain Defoe dinked in an equaliser and Gareth Bale hit the crossbar for the hosts before Elliott Bennett arrowed in Norwich's winner.2012 April 9, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport
  3. (intransitive) To develop an inflorescence.
    • The more vigorous and luxuriant the vegetation of a field of canes, the less will the tendency to flowering be shewn; whereas nearly all the canes will be found to arrow if the soil be poor and the vegetation meagre.1848, Louis Antoine A.G. De Verteuil, Three essays on the cultivation of the sugar-cane in Trinidad, page 12
    • In some sugar cane countries efforts are made to harvest the cane crops before the period of arrowing, and in Barbados it is thought that a considerable loss occurs in the yield of sugar if the harvest be delayed and only completed through the arrowing season.1903, Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, volume 30, page 374
  4. (intransitive) To navigate using the arrow keys.
    • Arrow left until you reach the start of the text you want to delete.
  5. (Singapore, Singlish, transitive) To single out or nominate (someone) to be responsible for something, especially an undesirable task.
    • Just because I never come for meeting … my boss arrow me to do this job.2011, Susan Tsang, Audrey Perera, Singapore at Random, →ISBN, page 36

Proper noun capitalized: Arrow

Arrow

  1. A surname.
  2. A village on the River Arrow in Arrow with Weethley parish, Stratford-on-Avon district, Warwickshire, England (OS grid ref SP0856).
  3. A river in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, England, which flows into the Warwickshire Avon.
  4. A river in Powys, Wales and Herefordshire, England, which flows into the River Lugg.
  5. A river in Otago, New Zealand, which flows through Arrowtown to the Kawarau River.
  6. An unincorporated community and old coal town in Pike County, Kentucky, United States.

Also used as

arrow is also the contraction of ever.

arrow meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

arrow in Hindi

projectile
तीर tīr, बाण bāṇ

arrow in Tamil

projectile
அம்பு ampu

arrow in Marathi

projectile
बाण bāṇ

arrow in Urdu

projectile
تیر tīr
More languagesFewer languages
arrow in Bengali
তীর tir
arrow in Telugu
బాణం గుర్తు bāṇaṁ gurtu, బాణము bāṇamu, అమ్ము ammu
arrow in Malayalam
ചിഹ്നം cihnaṁ, അമ്പ് ampŭ
arrow in Kannada
ಅಂಬು ambu, ಬಾಣ bāṇa
arrow in Punjabi
ਤੀਰ tīr
arrow in Gujarati
બાણ bāṇ
arrow in Odia
ବାଣ bāṇa, ତୀର tira
arrow in Sanskrit
इषु iṣu, बाण bāṇa, शर śara
arrow in Sinhala
ඊය īya
arrow in Assamese
কাঁড় kãr
arrow in Pashto
غشۍ ǧašëy
arrow in Tagalog
tunod, palaso, pletsa
arrow in Arabic
سَهْم sahm, سَهَم saham, سهم sahm
arrow in Malay
anak panah, panah
arrow in Indonesian
panah, anak panah
arrow in Persian
فلش fleš, پیکانه peykâne, تیر tir
arrow in Thai
ลูกศร lûuk-sɔ̌ɔn, ศร sɔ̌ɔn
arrow in Vietnamese
mũi tên, tên
arrow in Myanmar
မြား mra:
Sindhi
پيِلو pīlō
Dhivehi
ތީރު tīru

Examples of arrow in a sentence

  • He aimed at the target, but the arrow flew straight over it.
  • One well-known category has sets as objects and functions as arrows.
  • The arrows pierced through the welded ranks of the opposing army.

All 40 example sentences with arrow

Synonyms of arrow

Forms of arrow

Noun
pluralarrows
Verb
third-person singular presentarrows
present participlearrowing
past participlearrowed
pastarrowed

Plural of arrow: arrows

Origin of arrow

From Middle English arwe, from Old English earh (“arrow”) (oblique form ēarw-), from Proto-West Germanic *arhu (“arrow”), from Proto-Germanic *arhwō (“arrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂érkʷo- (“bow, arrow”). Cognate with Faroese ørv, ørvur (“arrow”), Icelandic ör (“arrow”), örvar (“arrows”), Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐍈𐌰𐌶𐌽𐌰 (arƕazna, “dart”), Asturian and Leonese arcu (“bow”), Aragonese, Galician, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish arco (“bow”), Catalan, French, and Romanian arc (“bow”), Latin arcus (“bow”). Doublet of arch, arc, arco, and arcus.

Representing pronunciation.

Words formed from arrow

Phrases with arrow

18 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with arrow

Questions about arrow

What does arrow mean?
Arrow means a projectile consisting of a shaft, a point and a tail with stabilizing fins that is shot from a bow.
What is arrow in Hindi?
Arrow in Hindi is तीर (tīr), बाण (bāṇ). See Arrow meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is arrow?
Arrow can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce arrow?
Arrow is pronounced /ˈæ.ɹəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of arrow?
The plural of arrow is arrows.

Words near arrow in the dictionary

  1. Arrouet
  2. Arrouets
  3. arrove
  4. arroves
  5. Arrovian
  6. arrow
  7. arrow arum
  8. arrow bag
  9. arrow bags
  10. arrow bamboo
  11. arrow bamboos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arrow (page history and authors); Arrow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ne-arrow.ogg.

Cite this entry: “arrow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arrow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.